The asbestos scare at Telstra sites being prepared for the National Broadband Network (NBN) has spread to Queensland, with the State Government saying asbestos-handling breaches have been identified at three locations.

There have already been five potential cases of exposure of the deadly material in New South Wales, Western Australia, South Australia and a complaint about a potential safety breach in Tasmania.

Meanwhile, authorities are investigating the discovery of asbestos at four sites at Ballarat in central Victoria, and the ABC has also located a fifth site.

The sites in Ballarat are near a primary school, a suburban street and several businesses.

Key points

Telstra is modernising and repairing thousands of telco pits as part of its NBN deal to prepare for fibre optic cable rollouts

Some old pits contain asbestos

Several sites in NSW, Vic and WA have already been shut down due to disturbed asbestos and safety fears

Three new sites involving asbestos handling breaches have now been identified in Queensland

So far Telstra has only confirmed asbestos has been potentially exposed at three sites in Penrith, in western Sydney, as Telstra contractors rolled out fibre optic cables for the NBN through old telecommunications pits.

Workplace Health and Safety officers say the breaches in Queensland were at the Brisbane suburbs of Banyo and Carseldine and in the northern city of Mackay over the past three months.

State Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie says the revelations are "extremely disturbing".

"At Carseldine, high-pressure water was used to clean a telecommunications pit containing asbestos. Debris was observed on the faces and clothes of two workers," he said in a statement.

"In the other instances, asbestos-contaminated dust was left uncontained for five days in Mackay and incorrect safety equipment was used at Banyo."

The contractors involved have been issued with prohibition and improvement notices, but Mr Bleijie says that is not good enough.

"With an infrastructure program as big as the NBN, a strong, national workplace safety plan should have been in place right from the start," he said.

"I have written to the Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten seeking urgent assurances about the safety of Queenslanders living near telecommunication pits and information on procedures that have been put in place to protect workers who may potentially deal with asbestos.

"As a state regulator we will provide whatever assistance we can to improve contractor management of asbestos in Queensland but the Federal Government has an obligation to ensure appropriate safeguards are in place for its own projects."

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy says the Commonwealth had not heard about potential exposure in Queensland until the State Government sent out a media release.

"We'll be looking into those to see whether or not they're Telstra remediation pits or NBN Co work towards installing, but at this stage we have no other information than what you've seen publicly," he said.

"This is a very serious issue and we need to make sure everyone's on the same page."

Mr Thodey says Telstra usually does "random testing" on pits because "that is the practical way to do it".

"Over the NBN project we've got literally hundreds of thousands of pits to remediate," he said.

"But we usually do spot checking in terms of the order because you can't test every pit."

Gillard, Abbott exchange barbs during Question Time

The issue dominated Question Time, with the Coalition attempting to pressure the Government over the issue.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott began by asking Prime Minister Julia Gillard whether $50 million spent on advertising the NBN "could have been better spent ensuring that communities ... were protected from exposure to asbestos".

Ms Gillard accused him of playing politics and said it was "disgraceful".

"As he well knows this is a matter involving pits and ducts and those pits and ducts are the responsibility of Telstra," she said.

"The Leader of the Opposition well knows that, but has chosen to play politics with this important matter nevertheless.

"I suppose we really shouldn't be surprised given this is the man who insulted Bernie Banton on his death bed - we shouldn't be surprised at all."

In the 2007 election campaign, Mr Abbott was forced to apologise to asbestos activist and mesothelioma victim Mr Banton, after questioning his motives.

"Let's be up front about this, I know Bernie is very sick, but just because a person is sick doesn't necessarily mean that he is pure of heart in all things," Mr Abbott said at the time.

He later said Mr Banton had a "thoroughly admirable commitment" to the cause.

But the Opposition persisted with questions to Mr Shorten over whether he has paid enough attention to the issue, given Telstra and NBN Co had known asbestos could be a danger in the rollout since June 2011.

Mr Shorten said he wrote to Telstra in 2009 "to say that there were people reporting that there were problems with pits".